Case Number 06387

Panic In The Streets

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All Rise...

When Judge George Hatch saw the word "plague" on the keep case, he suspected a terrorist ruse. He opened it slowly and found neither bio-chemicals nor a bomb—just one firecracker of a film!

The Charge

"With Panic in the Streets, Elia Kazan made the transition from a
director of performances to a director of films. It is also a transitional film
from '40s noir, which is characterized by selfish, greedy, and
unattractive people, such as in Double Indemnity, to '50s
noir that takes on larger social issues."—Commentators Alain
Silver and James Ursini

Opening Statement

As he did with Boomerang! (1947), director Elia Kazan filmed Panic
in the Streets in a semi-documentary style. It was shot on-location in New
Orleans; no sets were constructed, and Kazan used many of the city's residents
for crowd scenes and small speaking roles. According to commentators Silver and
Ursini "There were more non-professionals involved than real
actors."

The trailer for Panic in the Streets promotes the film as an
action/suspense thriller about preventing the spread of a nationwide biological
epidemic. Reading between the lines, however, Panic in the Streets can be
seen as an allegory about stopping the threat of Communism in the United States
at the beginning of the Cold War.

Facts of the Case

A low-stakes poker game goes bad when a newcomer to the group, Kochak, claims
the winnings and decides to leave because he isn't feeling well. Kochak is an
illegal immigrant brought stateside by his cousin, Poldi (Guy Thomajan). Along
with Fitch (Zero Mostel), Poldi is another toady under the thumb of Blackie
(Jack Palance), a small-time crook. Blackie wants the money back, so the three
chase Kochak to the waterfront, kill him, and toss the body off the dock.

When the dead man is discovered, a concerned mortician calls in Lt.
Commander Dr. Clinton Reed (Richard Widmark, True Colors) of the U.S. Public Health
Service. Reed confirms that the corpse is indeed infected with pneumonic plague,
a deadly airborne virus that could turn into an epidemic within 48 hours.
Everyone is immediately inoculated, except for the man—or men—who
dumped the body. Working with New Orleans Police Captain Tom Warren (Paul
Douglas, The Mating Game), Reed starts hunting down the killers.

Reed and Warren realize that a public announcement would not only spark a
widespread panic but would scare the culprits into leaving New Orleans and
possibly contaminate the entire country. Catching wind of the investigation,
Blackie suspects that Poldi's cousin may have smuggled in some valuable
contraband, possibly drugs or jewels. While Reed and Warren try to track the
killers down, Blackie and Fitch start their own search for Poldi, exposing every
person they question to this virulent plague.

The Evidence

After his stunning directorial debut in 1945 with A Tree Grows in
Brooklyn, Elia Kazan felt confident enough to incorporate his own
politically edged perspectives on American social issues. He delivered four more
films in the true Hollywood tradition, including his Oscar-winning Gentleman's Agreement (1947) that
dealt with anti-Semitism and Pinky (1949),
which tackled rape, racial prejudice, and a young black woman (played by Jeanne
Crain!) who could pass for white.

Both films premiered during the years that HUAC (the House Un-American
Activities Committee) was gearing up its witch-hunt for Communist infiltrators
within the entertainment industry, and Kazan was beginning to feel the pressure.
In 1932, he had been invited to join The Group Theatre, an American offshoot of
The Moscow Art Theatre. In 1947, he co-founded The Actors Studio and continued
to espouse the acting techniques pioneered by Konstantin Stanislavski. With
these "Russkie" connections, Kazan realized that it was only a matter
of time before he would become a prime target for a HUAC interrogation.

Perhaps Kazan was trying to fend off the inevitable by directing Panic in
the Streets as a pre-apologia for his early flirtation with Communism. He
takes the positive sides of both Lt. Clint Reed, the national military advisor,
and Captain Tom Warren, the judicial arm of the local police force, both of whom
want to stop a disease that threatens the entire country. Blackie and his crew
are defined as uneducated lowlifes, who will resort to any means in order to
retrieve that measly 200 bucks. Unwittingly, their questions pass along the
plague (read: political beliefs), and, as a result, several people die (read:
are converted to Communism).

Kazan conveniently introduces Neff, an investigative reporter representing
the Constitutional Amendment for "Freedom of Speech." The public is
entitled to know everything and should be allowed to make its own decisions. As
Neff homes in on the details of the investigation, the conservative Police Chief
Warren risks his career by having Neff unjustly sent to jail in order to prevent
him from spreading the news with an incendiary Page-One headline.

Two years later, Kazan named names and quickly became one of the most
despised people in the Hollywood community. Two actors from Panic in the
Streets were blacklisted: Zero Mostel and Barbara Bel Geddes. Mostel made a
few TV appearances in 1959 and 1960, but his first feature film, A Funny
Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum came over a decade and a half later
in 1966. Ms. Bel Geddes continued to act on stage and in several episodes of
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including the famous "Lamb to the
Slaughter." In 1957, Hitchcock cast her as the sympathetic
"Midge" in the big-budgeted Vertigo.

Of course, Panic in the Streets still stands on its own as a
suspenseful film noir. Silver and Ursini point out that all the elements
are present. Clint Reed is an average working man trying to make ends meet and
raise a family. Suddenly, he's thrust into a situation over which he has no
control, and his world is turned upside down. As a public-health official, he
becomes a noir-ish detective looking for answers. In the parallel
storyline, the infected Blackie and Fitch are also trying find Poldi and uncover
what valuables they suspect he might have smuggled in. Tension is maintained by
limiting both searches within a 48-hour time limit.

The acting is topnotch all around. Richard Widmark (Night and the City, Pickup on South Street) as Lt. Clint
Reed and Paul Douglas (A Letter to
Three Wives) as Police Chief Warren start off on opposite sides of the
fence. They argue over who should be in charge of the investigation, but as each
adopts some of the other's traits and techniques, they quickly become a team,
realizing what is at stake. Zero Mostel (The Producers) plays it soft and
straight without resorting to any of his trademark shtick. Barbara Bel Geddes
(Vertigo) has a small role as Clint's understanding and supportive
wife.

In his first role, Jack Palance (The Big Knife) steals the show as
Blackie. He's always on edge, planning and thinking fast, and keeping himself
two steps ahead of everyone else. One of his most impressive scenes occurs near
the end of the film, when he and Fitch find Poldi dying of the plague in bed.
Blackie still believes that Poldi has double-crossed him and is hiding
something. "We'll all share it. We'll split everything. Remember, I have
the connections." He alternately hugs Poldi to his chest, sweet-talking him
with promises of a better life, then, in a flash, his hands are around Poldi's
throat as he tries to choke the information out of him. Palance makes these
changes instantaneously, as his anger and frustration progressively mount.

The taut screenplay by Daniel Fuchs (Love Me or Leave Me) and Richard Murphy
(The Desert Rats) was adapted from
"Quarantine," a short story by Edna and Edward Anhalt. The film starts
on the right note with Billie Holiday singing "Fine and Mellow," and
Alfred Newman's jazzy score captures the flavor of New Orleans. Kazan (On the Waterfront) worked closely
with cinematographer Joseph MacDonald (Pickup on South Street), and
together they created a series of astonishing, well-choreographed long takes.
There's a brilliant 360-degree pan around Blackie when he's trapped in the
middle of a dock rooftop. The scene opens with a long-shot of Blackie running
toward the camera until his face fills the screen. Looking for a way out, he
glances at the opposite end of the roof, but the police are coming from both
directions. The camera follows his gaze, pulls back, and swirls around him,
showing the river on one side and an even higher roof on the other. There's no
way out, so he and Fitch kick out a small glass window, and, once inside a
coffee warehouse, this leads to one of the most exciting and unique chase scenes
you'll ever see.

Panic in the Streets is the third release in the "Fox Film
Noir" series. The full-screen transfer looks spectacular with rich,
solid blacks nicely offsetting the vivid whites and shades of gray. The Dolby
Digital 1.0 mono sounds much better than the 2.0 faux stereo that carries
an unwanted echoic effect. An informative commentary by Alain Silver and James
Ursini (co-editors of four Film Noir Readers) concentrates on the
difficulties of working on-location in cramped quarters and awkward spaces, such
as filming in a diner that is barely ten feet wide or under the docks where
dozens of crossbeams support the upper level. Cinematographer Joseph MacDonald
is justly praised for imaginative solutions to these problems and his creative
lighting techniques.

Silver and Ursini also call attention to images that would appear in other
Kazan films, including the poker table in A
Streetcar Named Desire and the docks, which were pivotal images in On the
Waterfront. More importantly, they cite the specifics of Kazan becoming
"a director of films" by singling out those complex long takes and
scenes in which characters appear in depth, acknowledging the influence Orson
Welles had on Kazan's directorial approach. Other than this commentary, the
extras are rather sparse, including only the original theatrical trailer and
four more for other films in this Fox noir series: Laura, Call Northside 777, The Street with No Name, and Sam
Fuller's House of Bamboo, which was shot
in CinemaScope and Technicolor.

Closing Statement

If Panic in the Streets were remade in this era, it would, no doubt,
be tied into current diseases and biological threats. In 1950, however,
audiences came to see an arresting action movie. They certainly got their dime's
worth…and more. Panic in the Streets is as relevant today as it was
over five decades ago.

The Verdict

Not guilty! And there's no need to panic. This excellent film has spread to
video outlets everywhere.